Fate of Special Session Bills in Limbo

About Capitol Desk

Capitol Desk delivers the latest in health care policy and politics from Sacramento and around the state. Have an idea? Let us know.

The California Legislature went on spring recess yesterday with the work of the special legislative session on health care still undone.

Proponents of theÂ special session billsÂ hoped to get them through a floor vote by now. One of the reasons the governor called the special session was to get bills passed in time to help set the stage forÂ full implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

There are six bills, total, as three mirror-image proposals make their way through both houses.

The other set of bills, which offer a bridge plan within the exchange Â (ABX1-3 with author still unnamed, and SBX1-3 by Hernandez) has not moved far. One is in committee in its house of origin, the other has not officially been introduced.

According to Hernandez, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, the individual market reforms will move quickly once recess ends Apr. 1 and the bridge plan bills will follow right behind them.

“The most important is the [individual market] reform bill,” Hernandez said. “The reason it has not been done by the spring break — and that was our goal — is that there was some technical language that had to be amended. My guess is that will be on the governor’s desk shortly after we return to session.”

The Medi-Cal expansion legislation, though, is a different story.

“The one we’re going to have trouble with is the Medicaid expansion bill,” Hernandez said. “We’re miles apart on that one.”

Assembly member Pan, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Health, said the hang-up on passage of the special session bills has to do, in part, with the debate over distribution of federal money. Counties are likely getting a large financial reprieve from optional Medi-Cal expansion and the state would like to get a piece of that.

“The governor is looking for sources of funding for the Medi-Cal expansion,” Pan said. “The expansion itself, though, is more of a policy issue than a budget issue. Those are big issues, so let’s not hold up the policy over other concerns.”

Hernandez the Medi-Cal expansion portion of the special session could be bumped into regular session.

“My sense is the administration wants to run this in the regular session,” he said. “That one’s going to be bottled up for a long time, and I can’t tell you how long.”Â

Related Topics

Copy And Paste To Republish This Story

Fate of Special Session Bills in Limbo

We encourage organizations to republish our content, free of charge. Here’s what we ask:

You must credit us as the original publisher, with a hyperlink to our californiahealthline.org site. If possible, please include the original author(s) and “California Healthline” in the byline. Please preserve the hyperlinks in the story.

It’s important to note, not everything on californiahealthline.org is available for republishing. If a story is labeled “All Rights Reserved,” we cannot grant permission to republish that item.